Featured Commentary category, Page 95
Colleen Hroncich: Education choice can prevent fights over covid policies
“One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to education.” This is a phrase that education-choice advocates have voiced for years to explain why families need options. But it’s never been truer than today while dealing with covid-19. Before Christmas break, many Pennsylvania school districts had considered moving to remote...
Cal Thomas: Crime and a widow’s eloquence
Trust in government has been declining since the administration of President Lyndon Johnson. According to Pew Research, only 36% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents and 9% of Republicans and those leaning Republican now trust government. Who can blame them given the failure of government to perform on many levels? One...
Reps. Joanna McClinton, Matt Bradford and Jordan Harris: Coming together for a brighter future for Pa.
It’s an unprecedented budget year for Pennsylvania, and for once the news is positive. Separate of the nearly $3 billion in unspent federal stimulus dollars left over from last fiscal year, state revenues are now coming in $1.5 billion over estimate (and climbing). This budget snapshot shows us that when...
Robert Smith: Frick Park’s glamour shot
We have all seen the celebrity glamour shots at awards shows. The well-designed backdrop, adoring peer group crowd, high-end clothing and jewelry, and sudden strike-the-pose camera snapshots. We also regularly see the politician glamour shot. The biggie-sized check, adoring crowd typically full of political cronies, poser snapshots or filmed snippets...
Bernie O’Neill and Eugene DePasquale: Legislative action on charter reform is long overdue
Our roles as former elected officials from both of the major political parties have given us unique perspectives into not only Pennsylvania’s political process, but also its public education system, particularly charter schools. Charter schools in the state have grown tremendously in the 24-plus years in which they have existed....
Rebecca Saltzman: Covid does harm children, in the short and long term
Our lives changed with a headache. I checked my 10-year-old son Gus’ forehead and found it burning. It was the week before Halloween 2021, and the FDA had not yet approved vaccines for children his age. We had been living with the pandemic for a year and a half by...
Vidhur Senthil: Teaching students to care for environment is critical
This year, about 50 million students will attend primary and secondary school in the United States. Every morning, as I and millions of others struggle to get out of bed, asking ourselves whether it’s really necessary to wake up this early, it’s evident that we have no other choice. School...
Peter Morici: Republicans need an economic agenda for the midterm elections
Wokeism and progressive overreach helped propel conservative values in the 2021 elections, but cultural issues won’t grip as reliably for Republicans in the midterms. Virginia exit polls indicated the economy was still the most important issue, but state and municipal politicians can do little more than steal jobs from other...
Rep. Greg Vitali: Pa. budget should fully fund environmental protection
Gov. Tom Wolf’s address to Pennsylvania’s General assembly on Feb. 8 will mark the official opening of negotiations on the commonwealth’s 2022-23 fiscal year budget. Regrettably, this annual budget has shortchanged the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for many years. With a rosy revenue picture for the upcoming fiscal year,...
Rep. Emily Kinkead: As governor, Shapiro will protect our democracy
Attacks on our democracy are only getting worse, and our next governor must be committed to defending our democracy and protecting our right to vote. On Jan. 5, 2021, I was sworn into my first term in office. It was an awe-inspiring day that I was able to share with...
John Sparks: Supreme Court renders mixed decisions on vaccine mandates
The U. S. Supreme Court has rejected President Joe Biden’s OSHA vaccination overreach for private sector employees, but has upheld the Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS) mandate for healthcare workers. The decisions are important for their immediate effects. The OSHA-related opinion, NFIB v. Department of Labor, bars the president, through...
Joshua Windham and Daryl James: Get Pa. agents off private land
Hunter Jon Mikesell and his friends thought they were alone when they reserved a clubhouse on private land in rural Pennsylvania for a Fourth of July retreat. But somebody was watching them the whole time. A man dressed in camouflage tracked the group’s activities from a hidden spot in the...
John Stossel: San Francisco, Sick City
San Francisco’s liberal mayor declared a “state of emergency” to try to deal with the city’s “nasty streets.” How did it get so bad? Journalist Michael Shellenberger’s new book, “San Fransicko,” argues that it happened because of progressive ideas. “The town I love is sick,” says Shellenberger. He came to...
Derrick Smith: Pa. is hurting. Where is Sen. Toomey?
I voted for Sen. Pat Toomey back in 2010 because he seemed like he wanted to look out for working people like me. He didn’t seem afraid of going against his party and working across the aisle to help working Americans. It’s the same reason that I proudly voted for...
John Wasik: Bad news — you’re in debt. Worse news — you’re in phony debt.
The email from “Norton Protection” said I owed $999.99, which was “charged successfully and it will appear on your bank statement in 24 to 48 hours.” Although I have an account with a leading cybersecurity company, I’ve never paid that much for its products. To “cancel” the charge, I was...
Nathan Benefield: Pa.’s out-of-control spending is driving away residents
Gov. Tom Wolf recently declared 2022 a “magical year” for the Pennsylvania budget, citing the possibility of a surplus. However, Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) predicts this “magic” will not last long. The IFO’s latest Five Year Budget Outlook projects that the state will return to a deficit by fiscal...
Cal Thomas: McConnell deconstructs Biden
The art of deconstructing an argument by refutation and holding a person accountable for previous statements that the person now contradicts was once an honored tradition. It has now mostly gone the way of other traditions in favor of sound bite statements formulated in political party meetings and used to...
Michael Torres: Pa.’s redistricting marked by hyper-partisanship
In December, a Democratic activist group led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder filed a lawsuit over congressional redistricting in Pennsylvania, where the state House has voted on a proposed map. The National Redistricting Action Fund argues that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-majority Legislature are at an...
Christopher Borick: A Pa. Republican Wave — if the party can ride it
Momentum is a valuable asset in many of life’s endeavors. In sports, business and entertainment, success can foster optimism and excitement, often creating opportunities for additional achievements. Momentum doubtless applies to politics, too — especially for the Republican Party in this midterm year. In Pennsylvania, the GOP clearly has the...
Andrew Cuff: State legislators as college administrators? It would be an improvement.
Last year, it became public knowledge that the state college system in Pennsylvania had dropped to its lowest enrollment in over 30 years. A statement from the state system’s spokesperson , Cody Jones, called the historic tumble the “covid effect on enrollment.” If so, covid’s effect on enrollment is consistent...
Lisa Fox: Raising awareness of human trafficking can save lives
“Never has a parent wished they would have been less protective of their missing child.” Those are the words of my colleague, Bill Hickman, CEO of CSI Corporate Security and Investigations . Bill often works with families whose children have gone missing in human trafficking schemes. With January being named...
Robert Smith: The American game of Three-card Monte
Three-card Monte is a con game where the shill pretends to conspire with the mark to cheat the dealer, while in fact the shill is conspiring with the dealer to cheat the mark. In America’s game of Three-card Monte, the citizen-taxpayer is the unfortunate mark. While many of the issues...
Gary Franks: The woes of Biden, caused by Biden
President Biden has taken the Democratic Party to new lows. The Dems have lost 14 points in 12 months in a recent Gallup poll on who the American people want to run the country. Biden’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’ polling numbers are at historic lows for this time in...
Ryan Shafik: Time to end corrupt endorsement process
Every year in Pennsylvania Republican politics, there is a dog-and-pony show that occurs mostly unseen by the average voter. Known simply in Keystone State political parlance as “the endorsement,” it’s a protracted process of wannabe candidates cloyingly ingratiating themselves to the few hundred apparatchiks comprising the Republican State Committee (RSC),...
Kelly Hunt: SBA helps entrepreneurs keep New Year’s resolutions
Taylor Bryner-Spaw and James Kunkel are having a busy January. Both are coaches for Fayette and Westmoreland County residents hoping to make good on New Year’s resolutions. Bryner-Spaw, 25, owner of the newly launched Spin Unlimited, is busy coaching cycling classes so attendees can achieve their fitness goals, while Kunkel...
